August 13, 2013 The Flaming Skull Nebula, a planetary nebula in Serpens Cauda Image Credit: T.A. Rector (University of Alaska Anchorage) and H. Schweiker (WIYN and NOAO/AURA/NSF) The Flaming Skull Nebula (Sharpless 68 or Sh2-68) is a large planetary nebula located in the northern part of the constellation of Serpens Cauda, the Serpent’s Tail. (The [continue reading]

July 17, 2013 Messier 5, a globular cluster in Serpens Image Credit & Copyright: Adam Block/Mount Lemmon SkyCenter/University of Arizona (http://skycenter.arizona.edu/gallery/starclusters/m5) Messier 5 (also known as NGC 5904) is a globular cluster of about 165 light-years across, while it gravitationally dominates a spherical volume of over 400 light-years across, making it one of the larger [continue reading]

July 4, 2013 Arp 220, merging galaxies in Serpens Image Credit: ESA/NASA and WikiSky Arp 220 is the result of a collision between two galaxies which are now in the process of merging, situated some 250 million light-years away from Earth in the northern constellation of Serpens (the Serpent). It is receding from us at [continue reading]

May 11, 2013 NGC 6118, a grand design spiral galaxy in Serpens Image Credit: ESO NGC 6118 (also known as the Blinking Galaxy) is a “grand design” spiral galaxy of roughly 110,000 light-years across (more or less the same size as our own Milky Way galaxy), located about 82.9 million light-years away from Earth in [continue reading]